OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 12.45pm
AUDITOR GENERAL Henri Kluever, South Africa’s widely respected watchdog of public accounts, announced on Wednesday that he is to step down from his post at the end of the year when his seven-year contract expires.
He said that the Constitution does not allow him to serve a second term in office — a clause which he says is “an excellent piece of legislation”, as it prevents an Auditor-General from currying favour for reappointment.
Kluever’s deputy, Shauket Fakie, is seen as his most obvious successor. The new Auditor-General must be appointed by the president on the recommendation of at least 60% of the members of the National Assembly, after interviews conducted by a special multi-party committee.
In his final report, which has been tabled in Parliament, but has yet to be distributed to MPs, he said he hopes his successor will be appointed soon after the election “so that the audit function may continue seamlessly into the new millenium”.
Kluever’s office has, throughout its seven year’s in operation, openly slated financial mismanagement in both the national and provincial government. Highlights of his office’s exposure of government’s shoddy financial mismanagement include R58-million in unauthorised expenditure at the Department of Health, which included R10-million on the Sarafina II Aids play and the exposure of the Mpumalanga housing scandal — which involved the granting of a R200-million housing contract to an unknown company run by the Housing Minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele’s friend.
Last year then Minerals and Energy Minister Penuell, suggested publicly that Kluever was party to the theft of R170-million of oil from the Strategic Fuel Fund. The accusation prompted a probe by the public protector even though Maduna retracted shortly after the inquiry began. Kluever, who was appointed for a seven-year term in 1993, was always quick to emphasise the similarities between his treatment by the old government and the new.